Mega Man finally has his own RPG series, and surprisingly, it works.

User Rating: 8.5 | Battle Network RockMan EXE GBA
The first game in a unique Mega Man RPG series, Mega Man Battle Network was somewhat of an oddity at release. Who ever would think that Mega Man could work in an RPG. Well it really does. Read on.

Gameplay (8/10): Well to begin with the story is mediocre at best. It is very basic, silly and predictable. You are a young kid that controls these programs called 'Navis' to destroy net viruses with. It is a funny take on a time of internet superiority, but don't expect a Xenogears out of this. There is one twist in the whole game but that isn't even that big of a deal by that point in the game. It seemed like a way to move the story on that is all. That being said the lighthearted humor is refreshing. Still, most of the characters are pretty basic and aren't too interesting.

The exploration is pretty basic too. Some of the 'levels' have some creativity thrown in but in the end nothing is really that hard to figure out because your hand is held throughout most of the game. One part of the game even requires you to be at a certain level so that you don't get obliterated before you move on.

Which leads us to levelling up. Unlike most RPGs, where you battle to get experiece to level up, here you level up by finding hidden items called Powerups, which are used to power up the rate of fire, power or charge time of the (all to familiar) buster. There are also HP powerups as well. There are a good amount of powerups that are bought from merchants as well. The twist is that when you win a battle, you are rated based on your skill and speed. Based on that rating you can earn one of two things: more money or a special 'battle chip', which leads us to the next part, the combat.

The combat is actually the main shining point of this game. It is a fabulous mix of Mega Man with classic RPG. When you enter (standard random encounters) a battle you will notice two 3x3 grids. One is your side the other is the enemy's. You can only move in your grid and your objective is to dodge enemy attacks while whittling down its HP until it is destroyed. How you do that is what is interesting. You can use the standard buster which is initially weak but later on can be very useful, or you can use specially acquired Battle Chips. You put 30 chips in your 'folder' and basically every 10 seconds or so you can bring up a screen that allows you to use a chip (or more than one depending on circumstances and chip types). The powers vary from healing, to creating shields, to destroying parts of the enemy grid, to straightforward damage. There are 175 different types of chips which makes for tons of battle strategies. This never gets old and is always fun.

The main downfall of this game is that it is generally far too easy and the 'levels' are for the most part pretty similar.

Graphics (8/10): Simple and gets the job done. Very vibrant and that makes it look wonderful. Seeing a lot of the old Mega Man bosses in 'Navi' form is very fun because most of them are designed very well. Still, there are too many recurring environments and some of the objects look TOO simple.

Sound (7/10): The music, although well-done, sounds like an 8-bit soundtrack. The GBA can handle much better. Still, it works. The main issue is that overall the sound effects aren't too impressive. In fact you will likely hear the same few sound effects throughout the entire game. You can't necessarily turn the sound off either, because some enemies act so fast that you need the reflexes that your eyes AND ears combined can give you. Not horrible but not exceptional either.

Value (10/10): The best thing about this game. It is about 20 hours long, which is the length of an old SNES rpg. That isn't bad, and on top of all that there is the incentive of maxing out your level. In fact a lot of the secrets are almost impossible without the higher levels. Upon beating the game there are a few nice and difficult secret bosses and areas you can tackle. On top of all that there are 175 chips to collect, and most of them are not easy to get, requiring not only fighting upgraded versions of bosses you have faced, but also getting high ratings against them. Really there is plenty reason to come back to this and get everything, it is just too fun. The multiplayer is an added bonus. It is a good way to have fun and show off some unique battle chip strategy you may have. It isn't exceptional, but as said it is an added bonus.

All-in-all this is a very solid RPG for the GBA. Where it lacks in story it excels in gameplay. It may not have the traditional combat of classic RPGs but it is new and fresh and extremely enjoyable. RPG fans will likely eat this up, and this is also fairly accessible to non-RPG fans as well. It is worth checking out. Enjoy.